Key Responsibilities and Required Skills for IT Internal Auditor

🎯 Role Definition

The IT Internal Auditor is responsible for planning, executing and reporting on IT risk assessments, audits and control testing across infrastructure, applications, cloud platforms and IT services. This role evaluates IT General Controls (ITGC), application controls, access management, change management, system development life cycle (SDLC) controls, third-party technology vendor governance and cyber security controls to ensure compliance with internal policies, SOX/financial controls and regulatory requirements. The IT Internal Auditor partners with IT, security, finance and business stakeholders to drive remediation, strengthen controls and provide assurance on the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information systems.

📈 Career Progression

Typical Career Path

Entry Point From:

IT Auditor (Entry / Junior)
IT Risk Analyst / IT Compliance Analyst
Systems Administrator or Developer moving into audit

Advancement To:

Senior IT Internal Auditor
IT Audit Manager / Lead
Director of IT Audit or Head of IT Risk & Controls

Lateral Moves:

IT Risk & Compliance Manager
Information Security Analyst / Manager
GRC (Governance, Risk & Compliance) Specialist

Core Responsibilities

Primary Functions

Plan, scope and execute IT audit engagements across infrastructure, applications, cloud (IaaS/PaaS/SaaS), network and database environments, ensuring alignment with the annual audit plan, risk register and stakeholder priorities.
Perform IT General Controls (ITGC) testing including user access provisioning and deprovisioning, privileged access management, authentication and password policies, segregation of duties and privileged account monitoring.
Conduct application controls testing for critical business applications (ERP, CRM, payroll, treasury systems) covering input, processing and output controls to validate completeness and accuracy of financial and operational data.
Assess change management and release management processes: evaluate code promotion, change approval, version control, emergency change procedures and rollback practices to identify control gaps and risk exposures.
Evaluate the effectiveness of identity and access management (IAM) processes and technologies, including single sign-on, multifactor authentication, role-based access control and privileged identity management.
Test and validate backup, recovery, business continuity and disaster recovery plans for critical systems, including recovery time objectives (RTO), recovery point objectives (RPO), backup integrity and offsite replication procedures.
Perform vulnerability and patch management assessments: review vulnerability scanning results, patch deployment procedures, exception handling and compensating controls for unsupported software.
Review endpoint security, anti-malware, host-based controls and configuration baselines against industry standards such as CIS benchmarks and internal hardening standards.
Evaluate cloud security and governance controls for AWS, Azure or Google Cloud: IAM in cloud, network segmentation, cloud configuration management, encryption of data at rest/in transit and cloud cost and access governance.
Assess third-party and vendor risk related to outsourced IT services, cloud service providers and managed service providers by performing third-party assurance reviews, SOC report analysis and contract/control mapping.
Conduct cyber security control testing aligned to NIST CSF, ISO 27001 or other enterprise frameworks; test incident response readiness, security monitoring, SIEM use cases and log retention/forensics capability.
Analyze privileged access, service account usage and hard-coded credentials in code repositories and scripts to identify excessive privilege and orphaned accounts.
Perform data analytics and automated testing using SQL, Python, ACL/IDEA or audit analytics tools to identify anomalies, access violations, segregation conflicts and reconciliation exceptions.
Assess application development lifecycle (SDLC) controls including secure coding practices, code review, static/dynamic application security testing (SAST/DAST), and developer access controls.
Lead SOX IT control testing and documentation for financial reporting systems, prepare workpapers, map controls to key financial assertions, and coordinate remediation with process and system owners.
Prepare clear, prioritized audit findings with risk ratings, root cause analysis and practical remediation recommendations; drive remediation tracking and verify implemented fixes.
Facilitate audit kickoffs, closing meetings and regular status updates with IT and business stakeholders; present technical findings to non-technical audiences and executive leadership.
Maintain and enhance audit methodologies, test scripts, templates and checklists to reflect emerging technologies (cloud, containers, microservices) and evolving regulatory requirements.
Support continuous auditing and monitoring programs by developing automated controls, dashboards and key risk indicators (KRIs) to provide near real-time assurance.
Coordinate cross-functional risk assessments with finance, legal, privacy and information security teams to ensure comprehensive enterprise coverage and alignment of control activities.
Review and test data privacy controls, data classification and retention policies, encryption key management and consent/handling processes to ensure compliance with GDPR, CCPA and other privacy regimes.
Mentor and coach junior auditors on technical testing techniques, audit report writing, stakeholder engagement and professional development.

Secondary Functions

Support ad-hoc data requests and exploratory data analysis.
Contribute to the organization's data strategy and roadmap.
Collaborate with business units to translate data needs into engineering requirements.
Participate in sprint planning and agile ceremonies within the data engineering team.
Support continuous improvement initiatives for audit automation, tool adoption and process simplification.
Represent the audit function in cross-functional projects such as ERP upgrades, cloud migrations and major IT transformations to provide proactive control design input.

Required Skills & Competencies

Hard Skills (Technical)

Strong knowledge of IT audit frameworks and standards: COBIT, COSO, NIST CSF, ISO 27001 and ITIL.
Experience performing SOX IT control testing, control design evaluation and SOX remediation tracking.
Proficiency with audit analytics and scripting: SQL for data extraction, Python or PowerShell for automation, and familiarity with ACL/IDEA or similar audit tools.
Practical understanding of cloud architectures and security controls in AWS, Azure or Google Cloud (IAM, VPC/NSG, KMS, cloud logging).
Hands-on knowledge of IAM, PAM (Privileged Access Management), SSO and multifactor authentication technologies.
Experience assessing network security, firewalls, VLANs, segmentation, VPNs and IDS/IPS controls.
Familiarity with application security testing tools and practices: SAST/DAST, code review, dependency scanning and secure SDLC integration.
Ability to review and interpret system and security logs, SIEM alerts and incident response artifacts.
Knowledge of database technologies, SQL tuning, encryption, database access controls and change management for DBAs.
Experience with GRC and audit management platforms (e.g., Archer, MetricStream, AuditBoard) for planning, findings, and remediation tracking.
Understanding of vendor risk management, SOC 1/SOC 2 report assessment and third-party control validation.
Working knowledge of backup/recovery technologies, business continuity planning and DR testing.
Familiarity with data privacy and protection controls, data masking, encryption and regulatory requirements (GDPR, CCPA).
Experience writing and presenting audit reports, executive summaries and risk-based recommendations.

Soft Skills

Excellent written and verbal communication tailored to technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Strong analytical and investigative mindset with an attention to detail and ability to synthesize complex technical issues.
Stakeholder management and negotiation skills to influence IT and business owners for timely remediation.
Project management and time management skills to plan engagements, manage multiple audits, and meet deadlines.
Critical thinking and problem-solving to propose practical, risk-based remediation strategies.
Integrity, professionalism and adherence to confidentiality and ethical standards.
Adaptability and continuous learning mindset to keep pace with cloud, DevOps and cybersecurity trends.
Team leadership and mentoring ability to develop junior audit staff and coordinate cross-functional teams.
Presentation and storytelling skills for executive reporting and board-level briefings.
Customer service orientation with a cooperative approach to auditing as a value-adding function.

Education & Experience

Educational Background

Minimum Education:

Bachelor's degree in Information Technology, Computer Science, Information Systems, Accounting, Cybersecurity or a related field.

Preferred Education:

Master's degree (MSc/MA) in Information Security, IT Audit, Business Administration (MBA) or related discipline.
Advanced coursework in cybersecurity, cloud computing or data analytics.

Relevant Fields of Study:

Information Technology / Computer Science
Information Systems / Cybersecurity
Accounting / Finance

Experience Requirements

Typical Experience Range:

3–7 years of combined IT audit, IT risk, information security or IT operations experience; 2+ years specifically performing IT audit/controls testing preferred.

Preferred:

5+ years of progressive experience in IT auditing with demonstrated experience in SOX, cloud security assessments and third-party risk reviews.
Professional certifications strongly preferred: CISA, CISSP, CRISC, CPA (for combined IT/Finance roles), ISO 27001 Lead Auditor.
Experience with audit automation tools, data analytics platforms and GRC systems.
Track record of delivering clear audit findings and driving remediation across technical and business teams.